1881, which is still in full force, empowers Russians to import tea from Hankow to Mongolia duty free, and sell it there; but the Chinese officials, ignoring this right, levy duty invariably. Again, it is open to the Tsar's Government, in virtue of the same treaty, to appoint Consuls to Kobdo, Khami and Guchen, but the Chinese Foreign Office has obstinately backed out of the stipulation, and the intention of the Russian Foreign Office to send Consuls to these towns has been persistently thwarted. Lastly, there are mixed courts in China, where the native Amban and the Russian Consul must sit together to adjudge cases brought for trial; but the native Ambans systematically absent themselves, so that the tribunal cannot sit. In Girin hundreds of lawsuits of great importance to Russian merchants have been shelved for years, to the grievous detriment of trade and commerce. During two years the St. Petersburg Foreign Office has been sending friendly representations on these subjects to Pekin and receiving the stereotyped reply that Russia's demands would be forthwith complied with, the Chinese Government being animated by feelings of cordial friendship for its puissant neighbor. Nothing more. Meanwhile the local authorities, whose manners frequently merge into insolence, continued their illegal practices, pleading stringent instructions received from the Chinese Foreign Office. Thus for two years Russian subjects have been methodically bereft of rights whch are not-cannot be questioned; but now the Imperial Government is minded to enforce those rights, keeping the goal steadily in view and paying scant heed to the route leading to it. The note of the 16th February, in the estimation of the Imperial Government, is not an ultimatum either in form or substance. It is but a keen diplomatic summing up

of three years' vain endeavors to induce China to discharge duties of such nature that no nation can shirk them without displaying unfriendliness to the other nation and implying contempt for laws and customs of all civilized nations. A formal ultimatum must have contained a term before the expiry of which the demands should be complied with. The Russian note, which fixes no date, is but a fair presentation of Russia's grievances and a frank reminder that unless they are speedily redressed Russia will herself employ efficacious means to redress them.

If this reminder also be disregarded the Russian Government will present a formal ultimatum, in which a term will be assigned, after the expiry of which diplomatic notes will be succeeded by overt acts emanating from a State department very different from the Foreign Office. In all probability the Government will allow about three weeks for the significance of the message to sink into the mind of diplomatic China. If within that period Russia be allowed to exercise all and sundry rights conferred upon her by the treaty of 1881 all will be well. But there must be no temporizing, no minimizing. Illegal duties on imports must be abolished unmistakably in act as well as on paper. The exequatur for Russian Consuls to the cities named in the note must be issued, so that the Consuls may set out for their posts without delay, and lawsuits awaiting hearing before mixed tribunals must be taken in hand and tried. Restitution of all other curtailed rights must also be made in a smilar trenchant style. Should the Chinese Government either shrink from thus giving satisfaction to Russia or have recourse to mere make-believe, the Tsar's Government will change its tactics. What course will then be pursued? I have good grounds for stating that in this

case the War Office would rig out a formidable military expedition and despatch it to the Ili district, which is situate east of Semiretchensk, and occupy that part of Chinese territory until the Pekin Government gives way. No serious resistance on the part of China is anticipated, but in any case the Russian War Office would see the matter through to a successful issue. What would happen after that would depend largely upon circumstances that cannot as yet be focussed. That is the present state of things, without exaggeration or extenuation of any of its essential elements.

The matter, however, possesses another aspect worth considering. The rights, to enforce which Russia is resolved to proceed to these lengths are short-lived, having but six months still to run. That is why I assigned as motive for present action the wounded sense of national dignity rather than value of material interests involved. The treaty of 1881 may, and probably will, be denounced by China. The Russian Government is quite prepared for the denunciation of the treaty if China be dissatisfied with it, and is ready at any time to enter into negotiations with the Pekin Foreign Office with the object of concluding a new treaty. On this subject any proposals coming from China, whatever their nature, will receive immediate, careful and friendly attention. Moreover, Russia hugs no illusions, clings to no prejudices, insists on no special priviThe Contemporary Review.

leges. She will approach the matter with a perfectly open mind, and discuss the schemes, if China have formulated any, in a friendly spirit, mindful of the necessity of establishing truly amicable relations between two great peoples whose common frontiers extend over such enormous distance. If Chinese statesmen be actuated by like aims, the representatives of the two States will soon find a broad, solid basis for a satisfactory, stable settlement of their differences and good neighborly intercourse. Russia covets no territory belonging to the Chinese Empire, desires no undue influence in Pekin; she is only anxious, but also resolved, to exercise her recognized rights. It is absolutely safe to affirm that, if the worst comes to the worst and a military expedition be despatched to the Ili district, Russia would even then abstain from annexing Chinese territory and confine herself to the attainment of the unique object she set herself. I am likewise enabled to declare categorically that the Russian authorities do not share the view recently set forth by many Press organs that the violation of the rights conferred by the treaty of 1881 is deemed to be tantamount not only to the abrogation of the treaty, but also to the restitution of the status quo ante, including the occupation of Kuldja. Russia's treaty rights do not stand in a causal nexus with the evacuation of Kuldja, and the St. Petersburg Foreign Office never fancied they did.

E. J. Dillon.

II. A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING." The scene is a drawing-room (in which the men are allowed to smoke or a smoking-room in which the women are allowed to draw-it doesn't much matter) in the house of somebody or other in the

country. George Turnbull and his old College friend, Henry Peterson, are confiding in each other, as old friends will, over their whiskies and cigars. It is about three o'clock in the after

noon.

George (dreamily, helping himself to a stiff soda). Henry, do you remember that evening at Christ Church College, five years ago, when we opened our hearts to each other

Henry (lighting a cigar and hiding it in a fern-pot). That moonlight evening on the Backs, George, when I had failed in my Matriculation examination?

George. Yes; and we promised that when either of us fell in love the other should be the first to hear of it? (Rising solemnly.) Henry, the moment has (With shining eyes.) I am in

come. love.

Henry (jumping up and grasping him by both hands). George! My dear old George! (In a voice broken with emotion) Bless you, George!

[He pats him thoughtfully on the back three times, nods his head twice, gives him a final grip of the hand, and returns to his chair.

George (more moved by this than he cares to show). Thank you, Henry. (Hoarsely.) You're a good fellow.

Henry (airily, with a typically British desire to conceal his emotion). Who is the lucky little lady?

George (taking out a picture postcard of the British Museum and kissing it passionately). Isobel Barley!

[If Henry is not careful he will probably give a start of surprise here, with the idea of suggesting to the audience that he (1) knows something about the lady's past, or (2) is in love with her himself. He is, however, thinking of a different play. We shall come to that one in a week or two.

Henry (in a slightly dashing manner). Little Isobel? Lucky dog!

George. I wish I could think so. (Sighs.) But I have yet to approach her, and she may be another's. (Fiercely) Heavens, Henry, if she should be another's!

to say for yourselves?

Henry (like a man). By Jove! (looking at his watch)—I had no idea-is it really-poor old Joe—waiting

[Dashes out tactfully in a state of incoherence.

George (rising and leading Isobel to the front of the stage). Miss Barley, now that we are alone I have something I want to say to you.

Isobel (looking at her watch). Well, you must be quick. Because I'm engaged

[George drops her hand and staggers away from her.

En

Isobel. Why, what's the matter? George (to the audience, in a voice expressing the very deeps of emotion). gaged! She is engaged! I am too late! [He sinks into a chair and covers his face with his hands. Isobel (surprised). Mr. Turnbull! What has happened?

George (waving her away with one hand). Go! Leave me! I can bear this best alone. (Exit Isobel.) Merciful heavens, she is plighted to another! Enter Henry.

Henry (eagerly). Well, old man? George (raising a face white with mixery-that is to say, if he has rememberol to put the French chalk in the palms of his hands). Henry, I am too late! She is another's!

Henry (in surprise). Whose?

George (with dignity). I did not ask her. It is nothing to me. Good-bye, Henry. Be kind to her.

Henry. Why, where are you going?

George (firmly). To the Rocky Mountains. I shall shoot some bears. Grizzly ones. It may be that thus I shall forget my grief.

Henry (after a pause). Perhaps you are right, George. What shall I tell Her?

George. Tell her-nothing. But should anything (feeling casually in his pockets) happen to me-if (going over

There is no reason for exaggerated alarm that even such an appalling contagion as the plague now raging in Northern China will not yield to the united effort of modern science and the intelligent policy of modern government and society. The immense measures of military exclusion alone represent an application of the principle of co-operation impossible in the days when the Golden Horde dominated the puny Tsars of Russia, or when the Persian Monarchy was still a danger to the Roman Empire and when the Prophet of Mecca had not yet been born for the glory of Islam. Whole armies of Russians, Chinese, and Japanese surround the infected area; and we fear that the iron order given to all those soldiers, in the case of suspected sufferers approaching too persistently the "cordon sanitaire," is "Do not hesitate to shoot." But when a single rat or marmot can bring death to a great city, when a bale of goods can carry pestilence for thousands

of miles, when international communications are more frequent and facile than ever before in the history of the world, there is no country of civilization or barbarism which can afford

to be indifferent to the duty of precaution. Besides, the rat plague, which is the same thing as the human plague, is already in the heart of England. In subterranean drains and burrows there is going on every hour of the day, here in tranquil England, the frenzied rush of thousands and hundreds of thousands of the rodents, maddened by the tortures of the disease, flying desper ately from county to county before the horrible death which pursues them. They have already infected English men and women and children who have died. Their human victims are happily only counted by units; but if the pneumonic plague which wiped out a family at Freston were to happen in a crowded, alien ghetto in the East End of London, could we be secure from a renewal of the scenes of antiquity and the Middle Ages?

The old roads of the Black Death are still open to the coming of the same invasion. The track which led from Northern China to Connemara in the century of the Mors Atrocissima still extends before the same most atrocious death. And the ravages of the pestilence in Manchuria to-day are described